In order to support experimentation with full-duplex (FD) wireless, we recently integrated an open-access FD transceiver in the ORBIT testbed. In this report, we present the design and implementation of the FD transceiver and interfaces, and provide examples and guidelines for experimentation. In particular, an ORBIT node with a National Instruments (NI)/Ettus Research Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) N210 software-defined radio (SDR) was equipped with the Columbia FlexICoN Gen-1 customized RF self-interference (SI) canceller box. The RF canceller box includes an RF SI canceller that is implemented using discrete components on a printed circuit board (PCB) and achieves 40dB RF SI cancellation across 5MHz bandwidth. We provide an FD transceiver baseline program and present two example FD experiments where 90dB and 85dB overall SI cancellation is achieved for a simple waveform and PSK modulated signals across both the RF and digital domains. We also discuss potential FD wireless experiments that can be conducted based on the implemented open-access FD transceiver and baseline program.
Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of battery-powered mobile devices, e.g., smartphones, tablets, sensors, and laptops, which leads a significant demand for high capacity wireless communication with high energy efficiency. Among technologies to provide the efficiency is full-duplex wireless communication. Full-duplex wireless enhances capacity by simultaneously transmitting uplink and downlink data with limited frequency resources. Previous studies on full-duplex wireless mostly focuses on doubling the network capacity, whereas in this paper we discuss that full-duplex wireless can al…
In this paper, we propose a reinforcement learning-based flexible duplex system for B5G with Sub-6 GHz. This system combines full-duplex radios and dynamic spectrum access to maximize the spectral efficiency. We verify this method's feasibility by implementing an FPGA-based real-time testbed. In addition, we compare the proposed algorithm with the result derived from the numerical analysis through system-level evaluations.
This paper presents an analytical model of power consumption for In-Band Full-Duplex (IBFD) Wireless Local-Area Networks (WLANs). Energy-efficiency is compared for both Half-Duplex (HD) and IBFD networks. The presented analytical model closely matches the results generated by simulation. For a given traffic scenario, IBFD systems exhibit higher power consumption, however at improved energy efficiency when compared to equivalent HD WLANs.
This paper studies two power control problems in energy harvesting wireless networks where one hybrid base station (HBS) and all user equipments (UEs) are operating in in-band full-duplex mode. We consider minimizing the aggregate power subject to the quality of service requirement constraint, and maximizing the aggregate throughput. We address these two problems by proposing two distributed power control schemes for controlling the uplink transmit power by the UEs and the downlink energy harvesting signal power by the HBS. In our proposed schemes, the HBS updates the downlink transmit power l…
Full duplex communication promises a paradigm shift in wireless networks by allowing simultaneous packet transmission and reception within the same channel. While recent prototypes indicate the feasibility of this concept, there is a lack of rigorous theoretical development on how full duplex impacts medium access control (MAC) protocols in practical wireless networks. In this paper, we formulate the first analytical model of a CSMA/CA based full duplex MAC protocol for a wireless LAN network composed of an access point serving mobile clients. There are two major contributions of our work: Fir…
In the last years, the advancements in signal processing and integrated circuits technology allowed several research groups to develop working prototypes of in-band full-duplex wireless systems. The introduction of such a revolutionary concept is promising in terms of increasing network performance, but at the same time poses several new challenges, especially at the MAC layer. Consequently, innovative channel access strategies are needed to exploit the opportunities provided by full-duplex while dealing with the increased complexity derived from its adoption. In this direction, this paper pro…
Full-duplex wireless communication has the potential to double the capacity of wireless networks by reducing the band occupancy of transmissions. However, a full-duplex capability cannot always reduce the band occupancy because the real traffic is not fully buffered. Buffering time while waiting for a packet to arrive at an opposite node is expected to reduce the band occupancy. In this study, we provide the first theoretical analysis of band occupancy and the mean waiting time for full-duplex communication with and without buffering time under traffic that is not fully buffered based on queue…
This article offers the first characterisation of mixed Nash equilibria (MNE) for a wireless system with full-duplex capable terminals that share a common channel via Aloha-based contention. Focussing on a simple grid topology, we prove that mixed MNE exist only if proportionality, driven by the accuracy of self-interference cancellation, is granted between the cost undergone for full- and half-duplex operations. The analysis shows how a proper selection of such costs allows MNE that are also optimal from a network viewpoint in terms of aggregate throughput. The sensitivity of system performan…
Full-duplex (FD) wireless can significantly enhance spectrum efficiency but requires tremendous amount of self-interference (SI) cancellation. Recent advances in the RFIC community enabled wideband RF SI cancellation (SIC) in integrated circuits (ICs) via frequency-domain equalization (FDE), where RF filters channelize the SI signal path. Unlike other FD implementations, that mostly rely on delay lines, FDE-based cancellers can be realized in small-form-factor devices. However, the fundamental limits and higher layer challenges associated with these cancellers were not explored yet. Therefore,…
In this paper, we consider the performance of a random-access time-slotted wireless network with a single access point and a mix of half- and full- duplex stations. Full-duplex transmissions involve data transmitted simultaneously in both directions, and this influences the dynamics of the queue at the access point. Given the probabilities of channel access by the nodes, this paper provides generalized analytical formulations for the throughputs for each station. Special cases related to a 802.11 DCA based system as well as a full-fairness system are discussed, which provide insights into the …
This paper investigates the throughput for wireless network with full-duplex radios using stochastic geometry. Full-duplex (FD) radios can exchange data simultaneously with each other. On the other hand, the downside of FD transmission is that it will inevitably cause extra interference to the network compared to half-duplex (HD) transmission. In this paper, we focus on a wireless network of nodes with both HD and FD capabilities and derive and optimize the throughput in such a network. Our analytical result shows that if the network is adapting an ALOHA protocol, the maximal throughput is alw…
In-Band Full-Duplex (IBFD) is a technique that enables a wireless node to simultaneously transmit a signal and receive another on the same assigned frequency. Thus, IBFD wireless systems can provide up to twice the channel capacity compared to conventional Half-Duplex (HD) systems. In order to study the feasibility of IBFD networks, reliable models are needed to capture anticipated benefits of IBFD above the physical layer (PHY). In this paper, an accurate analytical model based on Discrete-Time Markov Chain (DTMC) analysis for IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) with IBFD capa…
Large-scale wireless testbeds have been setup in the last years with the goal to study wireless multi-hop networks in more realistic environments. Since the setup and operation of such a testbed is expensive in terms of money, time, and labor, the crucial question rises whether this effort is justified with the scientific results the testbed generates. In this paper, we give an answer to this question based on our experience with the DES-Testbed, a large-scale wireless sensor network and wireless mesh network testbed. The DES-Testbed has been operated for almost 5 years. Our analysis comprises…
In this letter we consider emulation of a Full Duplex (FD) cellular base station (BS) by using two spatially separated and coordinated half duplex (HD) BSs. The proposed system is termed CoMPflex (CoMP for In-Band Wireless Full Duplex) and at a given instant it serves two HD mobile stations (MSs), one in the uplink and one in the downlink, respectively. We evaluate the performance of our scheme by using a geometric extension of the one-dimensional Wyner model, which takes into account the distances between the devices. The results show that CoMPflex leads to gains in terms of sum-rate and ener…
Growing demand for video services is the main driver for increasing traffic in wireless cellular data networks. Wireless video distribution schemes have recently been proposed to offload data via Device-to-Device (D2D) communications. These offloading schemes increase capacity and reduce end-to-end delay in cellular networks and help to serve the dramatically increasing demand for high quality video. In this paper, we propose a new scheme for video distribution over cellular networks by exploiting full-duplex (FD) D2D communication in two scenarios; scenario one: two nodes exchange their desir…
This paper introduces a novel paradigm for design- ing the physical and medium access control (MAC) layers of mobile ad hoc or peer-to-peer networks formed by half-duplex radios. A node equipped with such a radio cannot simultaneously transmit and receive useful signals at the same frequency. Unlike in conventional designs, where a node's transmission frames are scheduled away from its reception, each node transmits its signal through a randomly generated on-off duplex mask (or signature) over every frame interval, and receive a signal through each of its own off-slots. This is called rapid on…
In this letter, we proposed a shared-antenna full-duplex massive MIMO model for the multiuser MIMO system. This model exploits a single antenna array at the base station (BS) to transmit and receive the signals simultaneously. It has the merits of both the full-duplex system and the time-division duplex (TDD) massive MIMO system, i.e., the high spectral efficiency and the channel reciprocity. We focus on the zero-forcing (ZF) and the maximal-ratio transmission/maximal-ratio combining (MRT/MRC) linear processing methods, which are commonly used in the massive MIMO system. As the main finding, w…
The recent developments in self-interference (SI) cancellation techniques have led to the practical realization of full-duplex (FD) radios that can perform simultaneous transmission and reception. FD technology is attractive for various legacy communications standards. In this paper, after discussing the opportunities of FD technology at the network layer, we present a cross-layer aided routing protocol, termed as X-FDR, for multi-hop FD wireless networks. X-FDR exploits a Physical (PHY) layer model capturing imperfection of SI cancellation. At the medium access control (MAC) layer, X-FDR adop…
In this paper, we consider a full duplex wireless powered communication network where multiple users with RF energy harvesting capabilities communicate to a hybrid energy and information access point. An optimization framework is proposed with the objective of maximizing the sum throughput of the users subject to energy causality and maximum transmit power constraints considering a realistic energy harvesting model incorporating initial battery levels of the users. The joint optimization of power control, time allocation and scheduling is mathematically formulated as a mixed integer non linear…
In this work, we address the joint design of the wireless backhauling network topology as well as the frequency/power allocation on the wireless links, where nodes are capable of full-duplex (FD) operation. The proposed joint design enables the coexistence of multiple wireless links at the same channel, resulting in an enhanced spectral efficiency. Moreover, it enables the usage of FD capability when/where it is gainful. In this regard, a mixed-integer-linear-program (MILP) is proposed, aiming at a minimum cost design for the wireless backhaul network, considering the required rate demand at e…
As the spectrum under 6 GHz is being depleted, pushing wireless communications onto millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies is a trend that promises multi-Gbps data rate. mmWave is therefore considered as a key technology for 5G wireless systems and has attracted tremendous research efforts. The booming research on mmWave necessitates a reconfigurable mmWave testbed that can be used to prototype and validate new research ideas in real wireless environments. In this paper, we develop an easy-to-use mmWave testbed using commercial off-the-shelf devices (USRP and 60 GHz Tx/Rx RF frontends) and open-…
With the development of self-interference (SI) cancelation technology, full-duplex (FD) communication becomes possible. FD communication can theoretically double the spectral efficiency. When the time slot (TS) resources are limited and the number of flows is large, the scheduling mechanism of the flows becomes more important. Therefore, the effectiveness of FD scheduling mechanism for the flows is studied in millimeter wave wireless backhaul network with the limited TS resources. We proposed a full duplex concurrent scheduling algorithm based on coalition game (FDCG) to maximize the number of…
This paper studies the power allocation of an ultra-dense cellular network consisting of multiple full-duplex (FD) base stations (BSs) serving a large number of half-duplex (HD) user equipments (UEs) located in a wide geographical area. Each BS consists of a baseband unit (BBU) that is responsible for signal processing and base station control, and a radio remote unit (RRU) that corresponds to a radio transceiver remotely built closer to the UEs. We consider a wireless-powered cellular network in which the BBU can periodically charge the RRU. We model the energy efficiency and coverage optimiz…
The development of self-interference (SI) cancelation technology makes full-duplex (FD) communication possible. Considering the quality of service (QoS) of flows in small cells densely deployed scenario with limited time slot (TS) resources, this paper introduces the FD communication into the concurrent scheduling problem of millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless backhaul network. We propose a QoS-aware FD concurrent scheduling algorithm to maximize the number of flows with their QoS requirements satisfied. Based on the contention graph, the algorithm makes full use of the FD condition. Both residu…
Full-duplex (FD) wireless is an attractive communication paradigm with high potential for improving network capacity and reducing delay in wireless networks. Despite significant progress on the physical layer development, the challenges associated with developing medium access control (MAC) protocols for heterogeneous networks composed of both legacy half-duplex (HD) and emerging FD devices have not been fully addressed. Therefore, we focus on the design and performance evaluation of scheduling algorithms for infrastructure-based heterogeneous HD-FD networks (composed of HD and FD users). We f…
Testbeds are a key element in the evaluation of wireless multi-hop networks. In order to relieve researchers from the hassle of deploying their own testbeds, remotely controllable testbeds, such as the FIT/IoT-LAB, are built. However, while the IoT-LAB has a high number of nodes, they are deployed in constraint areas. This, together with the complex nature of radio propagation, makes an ad-hoc construction of multi-hop topologies with a high number of hops difficult. This work presents a strategic approach to solve this problem and proposes algorithms to generate topologies with desired proper…
Recent wireless testbed implementations have proven that full-duplex communication is in fact possible and can outperform half-duplex systems. Many of these implementations modify existing half-duplex systems to operate in full-duplex. To realize the full potential of full-duplex, radios need to be designed with self-interference in mind. In our work, we use an experimental setup with a patch antenna prototype to characterize the self-interference channel between two radios. In doing so, we form an analytical model to design analog baseband cancellation techniques. We show that our cancellatio…
In-band full duplex wireless is of utmost interest to future wireless communication and networking due to great potentials of spectrum efficiency. IBFD wireless, however, is throttled by its key challenge, namely self-interference. Therefore, effective self-interference cancellation is the key to enable IBFD wireless. This paper proposes a real-time non-linear self-interference cancellation solution based on deep learning. In this solution, a self-interference channel is modeled by a deep neural network (DNN). Synchronized self-interference channel data is first collected to train the DNN of t…
Wireless sensor networks have been increasingly used for real-time surveillance over large areas. In such applications, it is important to support end-to-end delay constraints for packet deliveries even when the corresponding flows require multi-hop transmissions. In addition to delay constraints, each flow of real-time surveillance may require some guarantees on throughput of packets that meet the delay constraints. Further, as wireless sensor networks are usually deployed in challenging environments, it is important to specifically consider the effects of unreliable wireless transmissions. I…
A novel solution is proposed to undertake a frequent task in wireless networks, which is to let all nodes broadcast information to and receive information from their respective one-hop neighboring nodes. The contribution is two-fold. First, as each neighbor selects one message-bearing codeword from its unique codebook for transmission, it is shown that decoding their messages based on a superposition of those codewords through the multiaccess channel is fundamentally a problem of compressed sensing. In the case where each message consists of a small number of bits, an iterative algorithm based…
Recent wireless testbed implementations have proven that full-duplex communication is in fact possible and can outperform half-duplex systems. Many of these implementations modify existing half-duplex systems to operate in full-duplex. To realize the full potential of full-duplex, radios need to be designed with self-interference in mind. In our work, we use a novel patch antenna prototype in an experimental setup to characterize the self-interference channel between transmit and receive radios. We derive an equivalent analytical baseband model and propose analog baseband cancellation techniqu…
In this paper, joint designs of data routes and resource allocations are developed for generic half-duplex multicarrier wireless networks in which each subcarrier can be reused by multiple links. Two instances are considered. The first instance pertains to the general case in which each subcarrier can be timeshared by multiple links, whereas the second instance pertains to a special case in which time-sharing is not allowed and a subcarrier, once assigned to a set of links, is used by those links throughout the signalling interval. Novel frameworks are developed to optimize the joint design of…
Joint access point (AP) association and physical carrier sensing (PCS) threshold selection has the potential to improve the performance in high density wireless LANs (WLANs) under high contention, interference and self-interference (SI) limited transmissions. Using tools from stochastic geometry, user and AP locations are independent realizations of spatial point processes. Considering the inherent effects of the channel access protocol, the spatial density of throughput (SDT), which depends on channel access probability and coverage rate, is derived as the performance objective. Leveraging sp…
Communication and networking research introduces new protocols and standards with an increasing number of researchers relying on real experiments rather than simulations to evaluate the performance of their new protocols. A number of testbeds are currently available for this purpose and a growing number of users are requesting access to those testbeds. This motivates the need for better utilization of the testbeds by allowing concurrent experimentations. In this work, we introduce a novel mapping algorithm that aims to maximize wireless testbed utilization using frequency slicing of the spectr…
We consider a multiuser wireless system with a full-duplex hybrid access point (HAP) that transmits to a set of users in the downlink channel, while receiving data from a set of energy-constrained sensors in the uplink channel. We assume that the HAP is equipped with a massive antenna array, while all users and sensor nodes have a single antenna. We adopt a time-switching protocol where in the first phase, sensors are powered through wireless energy transfer from HAP and HAP estimates the downlink channel of the users. In the second phase, sensors use the harvested energy to transmit to the HA…
Software development for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is challenging due to characteristics of sensor nodes and the environment they are deployed in. Testing software in a real WSN testbed allows users to get reliable test results. However, real testbeds become more expensive as the number of sensor nodes in the network grows. Simulation tools are alternatives to real testbeds. They are cheaper, faster and repeatable. However, simulation results are not reliable as that of testbeds. Therefore, there is a need for a testing tool that can leverage the advantages of testbeds and simulation too…
Experimental research on wireless networking in combination with edge and cloud computing has been the subject of explosive interest in the last decade. This development has been driven by the increasing complexity of modern wireless technologies and the extensive softwarization of these through projects such as a Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN). In this context, a number of small- to mid-scale testbeds have emerged, employing a variety of technologies to target a wide array of use-cases and scenarios in the context of novel mobile communication technologies such as 5G and beyond-5G. Little …
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have emerged as one of the most promising technologies for the current era. Researchers have studied them for several years ago, but more work still needed to be made since open opportunities to integrate new technologies are added to this field. One challenging task is WSN deployment. Yet, this is done by real deployment with testbeds platforms or by simulation tools when real deployment could be costly and time-consuming. In this paper, we review the implementation and evaluation process in WSNs. We then describe relevant testbeds and simulation tools, and the…
In this article, we present a real-time full duplex radio system for 5G wireless networks. Full duplex radios are capable of opening new possibilities in contexts of high traffic demand where there are limited radio resources. A critical issue, however, to implementing full duplex radios, in real wireless environments, is being able to cancel self-interference. To overcome the self-interference challenge, we prototype our design on a software-defined radio (SDR) platform. This design combines a dual-polarization antenna-based analog part with a digital self-interference canceller that operates…
The actual performance of video delivery over wireless networks is best captured through experimental studies over real testbed, which is crucial to uncover the technical problems and practical challenges of realizing the proposed video delivery techniques. Network coding (NC) provides a paradigm shift to optimize the network resources for enhancing the video quality as a result of delivery over multi-hop wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for evaluating the performance of NC-based video delivery over multi-hop wireless networks. Based on an experimental testbed imp…
Wireless networks are becoming the key building block of our communications infrastructure. Examples range from cellular networks to ad hoc and sensor networks in wildlife monitoring and environmental scenarios. With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) millions of physical and virtual objects will communicate wireless and enhance the daily life. The adaptivity and scalability of wireless networks in the IoT is one of the most challenging tasks. Bio-inspired networking algorithms are a way to tackle these issues. In this paper we present a simulation framework based on OMNeT++ to implement…
The abundance of unlicensed spectrum in the 60 GHz band makes it an attractive alternative for future wireless communication systems. Such systems are expected to provide data transmission rates in the order of multi-gigabits per second in order to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for high rate data communication. Unfortunately, 60 GHz radio is subject to severe path loss which limits its usability for long-range outdoor communication. In this work, we propose a multi-hop 60 GHz wireless network for outdoor communication where multiple full-duplex buffered relays are used to extend the commu…
Wireless network virtualization has attracted great attentions from both academia and industry. Another emerging technology for next generation wireless networks is in-band full duplex (FD) communications. Due to its promising performance, FD communication has been considered as an effective way to achieve self-backhauls for small cells. In this paper, we introduce wireless virtualization into small cell networks, and propose a virtualized small cell network architecture with FD self-backhauls. We formulate the virtual resource allocation problem in virtualized small cell networks with FD self…
We present a low complexity experimental RF-based indoor localization system based on the collection and processing of WiFi RSSI signals and processing using a RSS-based multi-lateration algorithm to determine a robotic mobile node's location. We use a real indoor wireless testbed called w-iLab.t that is deployed in Zwijnaarde, Ghent, Belgium. One of the unique attributes of this testbed is that it provides tools and interfaces using Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project to easily create reproducible wireless network experiments in a controlled environment. We provide a low…
This work investigates the maximum broadcast throughput and its achievability in multi-hop wireless networks with half-duplex node constraint. We allow the use of physical-layer network coding (PNC). Although the use of PNC for unicast has been extensively studied, there has been little prior work on PNC for broadcast. Our specific results are as follows: 1) For single-source broadcast, the theoretical throughput upper bound is n/(n+1), where n is the "min vertex-cut" size of the network. 2) In general, the throughput upper bound is not always achievable. 3) For grid and many other networks, t…
Security is a critical issue in full duplex (FD) communication systems due to the broadcast nature of wireless channels. In this paper, joint design of information and artificial noise beamforming vectors is proposed for the FD simultaneous wireless information and power transferring (FD-SWIPT) systems with loopback self-interference cancellation. To guarantee high security and energy harvesting performance of the FD-SWIPT system, the proposed design is formulated as a secrecy rate maximization problem under energy transfer rate constraints. Although the secrecy rate maximization problem is no…
Three-node full-duplex is a promising new transmission mode between a full-duplex capable wireless node and two other wireless nodes that use half-duplex transmission and reception respectively. Although three-node full-duplex transmissions can increase the spectral efficiency without requiring full-duplex capability of user devices, inter-node interference - in addition to the inherent self-interference - can severely degrade the performance. Therefore, as methods that provide effective self-interference mitigation evolve, the management of inter-node interference is becoming increasingly imp…
Recent studies indicate the feasibility of in-band fullduplex (FD) wireless communications, where a wireless radio transmits and receives simultaneously in the same band. Due to its potential to increase the capacity, analyzing the performance of a cellular network that contains full-duplex devices is crucial. In this paper, we consider maximizing the weighted sum-rate of downlink and uplink of a single cell OFDMA network which consists of an imperfect FD base-station (BS) and a mixture of half-duplex and imperfect full-duplex mobile users. To this end, the joint problem of sub-channel assignm…
Recent work has shown the feasibility of single-channel full-duplex wireless physical layer, allowing nodes to send and receive in the same frequency band at the same time. In this report, we first design and implement a real-time 64-subcarrier 10 MHz full-duplex OFDM physical layer, FD-PHY. The proposed FD-PHY not only allows synchronous full-duplex transmissions but also selective asynchronous full-duplex modes. Further, we show that in over-the-air experiments using optimal antenna placement on actual devices, the self-interference can be suppressed upto 80dB, which is 10dB more than prior …
Loop interference (LI) in wireless communications, is a notion resulting from the full-duplex (FD) operation. In a large-scale network, FD also increases the multiuser interference due to the large number of active wireless links that exist. Hence, in order to realize the FD potentials, this interference needs to be restricted. This paper presents a stochastic geometry model of FD cellular networks where the users and base stations employ directional antennas. Based on previous experimental results, we model the passive suppression of the LI at each FD terminal as a function of the angle betwe…
Wireless underground sensor networks (WUSNs) can enable many important applications such as intelligent agriculture, pipeline fault diagnosis, mine disaster rescue, concealed border patrol, crude oil exploration, among others. The key challenge to realize WUSNs is the wireless communication in underground environments. Most existing wireless communication systems utilize the dipole antenna to transmit and receive propagating electromagnetic (EM) waves, which do not work well in underground environments due to the very high material absorption loss. The Magnetic Induction (MI) technique provide…
Full-duplex communication has the potential to substantially increase the throughput in wireless networks. However, the benefits of full-duplex are still not well understood. In this paper, we characterize the full-duplex rate gains in both single-channel and multi-channel use cases. For the single-channel case, we quantify the rate gain as a function of the remaining self-interference and SNR values. We also provide a sufficient condition under which the sum of uplink and downlink rates on a full-duplex channel is concave in the transmission power levels. Building on these results, we conside…
Full duplex (FD) communications, which increases spectral efficiency through simultaneous transmission and reception on the same frequency band, is a promising technology to meet the demand of next generation wireless networks. In this paper, we consider the application of such FD communication to self-backhauled small cells. We consider a FD capable small cell base station (BS) being wirelessly backhauled by a FD capable macro-cell BS. FD communication enables simultaneous backhaul and access transmissions at small cell BSs, which reduces the need to orthogonalize allocated spectrum between a…
In this paper, statistical Quality of Service provisioning in next generation heterogeneous mobile cellular networks is investigated. To this aim, any active entity of the cellular network is regarded as a queuing system, whose statistical QoS requirements depend on the specific application. In this context, by quantifying the performance in terms of effective capacity, we introduce a lower bound for the system performance that facilitates an efficient analysis. We exploit this analytical framework to give insights about the possible improvement of the statistical QoS experienced by the users …
